Former Today show host Lisa Wilkinson has revealed a bizarre fad diet she once ‘fell victim’ to during her younger years.
The stylish media personality, who will make her highly-anticipated debut on The Project on Sunday, said she took up the ‘Israeli Army diet’.
The now 58-year-old was pressed on whether she has ever gone on any extreme fad diets, to which she responded: ‘I was sort of in my late teens and into my 20s.’
Lisa Wilkinson has revealed a bizarre fad diet she once ‘fell victim’ to during her younger years
She said she took up an ‘Israeli Army diet’ in her late teens and her 20s (pictured in the 1970s)
‘I fell victim to the Israeli Army diet, which was two days of apples, two days of cheese, two days of chicken and two days of carrot sticks,’ she said at the Nutra-Life luncheon in Sydney on Tuesday.
‘My weight used to fluctuate over time because I go on something like that, and I’d be starving. And you’d eat for a month to make up for those three and a half days when you suffered.’
Prompting laughter from the crowd, the mother-of-three added there was ‘no way any Israeli army, soldier ever went on’ this diet’.
The classic fad diet, which is not endorsed by any medical or health professionals, was said to be popular in the 1970s.
The mother who is the brand ambassador of Nutra-Life spoke at the luncheon on Tuesday
The stylish media personality said took up the eight-day plan in her younger years
Despite taking up the eight-day plan, Wilkinson said she stopped dieting altogether when she met her now-husband Peter FitzSimons.
‘I just got into my foodies and met Pete,’ she said.
‘When we first started hanging out, we were living on Thai takeaway, I think I put on a few kilos. Okay I know I put on a few kilos and I didn’t care.
‘And [Pete] said something to me one day, he said: “I think you might have added a few curves since we started going out”.
‘I burst into tears and I just thought, he’s rejecting me.’
Clearly confused by his own remark, Wilkinson recalled her husband asking her: ‘What did I just say? Because this is a man who loves curves.
Wilkinson stopped dieting altogether when she met her now-husband Peter FitzSimons
Wilkinson said her husband’s heartfelt comment gave her confidence with loving herself
‘He kind of took me by the shoulder and said: “You don’t get it. I would love you if you were 100 stones”,’ Wilkinson added.
‘I still, till this day remember just feeling “he really means that”.
‘And I basically haven’t diet since.’
Wilkinson said her husband’s heartfelt comment gave her confidence with loving herself.
‘When you feel like you’re completely accepted by the person that you love, in my case, I thought “if he can accept me, Jesus why can’t I?”,’ she said.